smoking is back

Well last night was the first big freeze at mine and this morning the ca\r was started and just blueish/smoke from the exhaust just poured out gave it a few revs and after bout 30 secs it cleared up

it did this in feb/ march time and it went but clearly the warmer weather was keeping it away

points to note

it does not use any water
does not use any oil
doing the glow plugs more than once does not cure it

does idle lumpy when smoking

any ideas guys

Any work done to it that would upset any seals in the engine? I have known of a similar thing when Somone did a head gasket on a car and didn't put new injector seals in. Quick blip of the throttle and it was gone.

I had this problem last year, turned out to be a dodgy injector

My gut thought would be injector but wouldn't just follow my advise on a gut feeling

there has been no engine work while i have owned it..

injector on the L series the question is which one and how to diagnose

theres no fault codes on the car

it is your heater plugs try to switch them back on immediately the light goes out I do it three times and get no smoke I was going to replace them but did not get round to it

My L series had white smoke which was caused by a frayed plug cable, #1 I think but can't be sure.
It seems it is a common problem.
Wrapping it in insulation tape cured the problem.

Will take the glow plug wire off and check the wire


Was going to change the gp in summer but they don't look like they going to come out just guessing but I'd say they not been done before

Thanx for the idea will look into them. The only downside once it started and cleared it doesn't do it again till the following day

Sounds just like mine.

Only mine only does it for about 10 seconds.

It's going in for a leak back test in 2 weeks time. That's the earliest I can get down the the garage. They will fit my lift kit at the same time.

blue ish smoke is oil, if its only started doing it when the cold weather arrived it may be a slightly worn bore and the cold weather has made the piston shrink that tiny bit more or possibly a valve stem seal. If it is a grey/white ish type smoke then it is more likely to be an injector/glow plug type fault

did the glow plugs 5 times today and no different

going to see if my mate at a garage can get the plugs out and swap them first

if it needs engine work then i'll prop end up just getting rid i put to much into this car as it is and the wife isnt pleased with yet more work as it was ok in summer and seems to be a cold thing its really annoying

I would do a compression test before you do anything hasty!

Mine cleared by waiting five or so seconds after the dash light goes out before starting, seemingly the glow plugs still heat up after the light goes out.
Worth a try.

dougjoy said:

Mine cleared by waiting five or so seconds after the dash light goes out before starting, seemingly the glow plugs still heat up after the light goes out.
Worth a try.

Click to expand...

this is very true the glowplugs stay on for around a good 10 seconds I fitted an LED to the glowplug feed so I can see exactly what they are doing!

been out to her this morning and when i went out i waited for the light to go out also counted to 10 i did this 3 times

now on idle it was lumpy for 5 seconds and then was ok not as much smoke but as soon as i blipped the throttle it was there again until it went back to idle

is bluey/white smoke

Could be injectors. Mine gave similar symptoms to failed glow plugs when I had various Mitsubishi IDI engines, but with these more hi-tech common rail engines, glow plugs aren't as important. But even the old Mitisis with shagged plugs would stop smoking after a few seconds once the cylinders had warmed up. I had my 4 injectors re-conned which solved ALL my running issues, but cost me £400 and that was with me doing all the removal and fitting. Getting them out and cleaning the bore is a complete arse... and you MUST cut the seats in the head smooth or the injector bases won't seal properly and you'll be back to square one again. Proper tool for doing this is not much though. It's not difficult, just annoying to do if that makes sense?

Take the cover off, remove the hex bolts and take a look at the breather.
It has probably never been changed and is gunked up.

Or,

Remove the dipstick while it's running, ask someone to give it some beans on the throttle. If you notice back pressure, it is definitely the breather. You may get oil spitting out which is nothing to panic about but make sure you refit the dipstick fully.

This is certainly the first thing I would look at following what you've done and what has been recommended.

If it is this, you get everything you need in the kit and it shouldn't cost a great amount.

That's a very good point! Check the breather...

What breather

Mine is the l series

Blue smoke is always related to a problem with either Air, Fuel or Oil.

It could be a mixture of either one with another or in the worst case, all 3. Either way, Air will always be involved.

If the smoke is not diagnosed at an early stage,(this thread indicates an early stage) it will eventually appear all of the time when the engine is running. So the first thing to check is the crankcase ventilation valve i.e the breather. Start the diagnosis with the cheapest option. This being air. If pressure builds up in the oil sump, the valve allows this pressure containing oil to release. The pressure containing oil is released into the inlet manifold which is fed from air filter. If the valve is permantly open, it will keep mixing air and oil with other gas from inside the engine. The oil gets mixed with fuel and air and this creates the blue smoke.

Hope this helps.